Showtime’s ‘Billions’ Ups Asia Kate Dillon To Series Regular For Season 3

EXCLUSIVE: Already challenging the conventions of the Emmy categories this year, Asia Kate Dillon will now be solidly in the heart of Showtime’s Billionsfor Season 3, it was announced today during Deadline’s The Contenders Emmys event. The performer will be upped to series regular for the upcoming season, executive producer Brian Koppelman said onstage at the DGA Theater just hours before the eighth episode of Season 2.

Dillon plays introspective financial whiz Taylor Mason in the second season of the series toplined by Paul Giamatti, Damian Lewis, Malin Akerman and Maggie Siff. The performer was joined onstage at the Billions panel today by Siff and co-creator/executive producers Koppelman and David Levien.

“We read a lot of parts for this but Asia came in and completely blew us away,” Koppleman said during the panel.

Playing the first gender non-binary character in a TV drama, Dillon has opted to seek a Supporting Actor nomination in the 2017 Emmy race. “I’d like to know if in your eyes ‘actor’ and ‘actress’ denote anatomy or identity and why it is necessary to denote either in the first place?” Dillon wrote the TV Academy earlier this week. In a very 21st century response, the TV Academy inclusively said, “anyone can submit under either category for any reason.”

“They’ve been totally kosher about the whole thing,” Dillon said of the Academy today. “They’ve been nothing but supportive and their message of inclusivity has been really, really wonderful.”